"While the distraction that is the stock market continues to enthrall most Americans, the big shots in the global monetary which for now are taking place behind the scenes, are getting ever louder. Several recent cases in point:

One person who is paying attention to the failure of the US to grasp that the unipolar world of the 1980s is long gone, is Russia's Vladimir Putin, who earlier today proposed creating a "Eurasian" currency union which would have Belarus and Kazakhstan as its first members, which already are Russia's partners in a political and economic union made up of former Soviet republics.

ballistic missile tested last night
A320 crashes and everyone is dead
Ted Cruz announced presidential run
I have the flu + high fever + other things

Other bad things that has happened on the 24th

1998 – Jonesboro massacre: Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, aged 11 and 13 respectively, fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are killed and ten are wounded.

STOCKHOLM — The Swedish Air Force on Tuesday tracked four Russian combat aircraft flying with their transponders turned off over the Baltic Sea, officials said.

The Russian planes — two long-range, nuclear-capable Tu-22M3 bombers and two Sukhoi Su-27 fighters — were flying in international airspace, according to Sweden's Armed Forces.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom called it "unacceptable" for the Russian planes to be flying with shut-off transponders that are necessary for identifying aircraft on radar, calling it violation of international aviation rules.

i feel like i've told this story before, but i had a russian acquaintance (actually from Kazakhstan lol BORAT!) who said to me after I called vladimir the desolation of abomination, and i paraprase: "Putin is the best leader Russia has had since Stalin."